Little Women
'Little Women' Summary
Four sisters and their mother, whom they call Marmee, live in a new neighborhood (loosely based on Concord) in Massachusetts in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is serving as a chaplain in the American Civil War, far from home. The mother and daughters face their first Christmas without him. When Marmee asks her daughters to give their Christmas breakfast away to an impoverished family, the girls venture into town laden with baskets to feed the hungry children and their mother. When they return, they discover their elderly neighbor Mr. Laurence has sent over a decadent surprise dinner to make up for their breakfast. The two families become acquainted following these acts of kindness.
Meg and Jo must work to support the family: Meg tutors a nearby family of four children; Jo assists her aged great-aunt March, a wealthy widow living in a mansion, Plumfield. Beth, too timid for school, is content to stay at home and help with housework; and Amy is still at school. Meg is beautiful and traditional, Jo is a tomboy who writes; Beth is a peacemaker and a pianist; and Amy is an artist who longs for elegance and fine society. The sisters strive to help their family and improve their characters as Meg is vain, Jo is hotheaded, Beth is cripplingly shy, and Amy is materialistic. The neighbor boy Laurie, orphaned grandson of Mr. Laurence, becomes close friends with the sisters, particularly the tomboyish Jo.
The girls keep busy as the war goes on. Jo writes a novel that gets published but is frustrated to have to edit it down and can't comprehend the conflicting critical response. Meg is invited to spend two weeks with rich friends, where there are parties for the girls to dance with boys and improve their social skills. Laurie is invited to one of the dances, and Meg's friends incorrectly think she is in love with him. Meg is more interested in John Brooke, Laurie's young tutor.
Word comes that Mr. March is very ill with pneumonia and Marmee is called away to nurse him in Washington. Mr. Laurence offers to accompany her but she declines, knowing travel would be uncomfortable for the old man. Mr. Laurence instead sends John Brooke to do his business in Washington and help the Marches. While in Washington, Brooke confesses his love for Meg to her parents. They are pleased, but consider Meg too young to marry, so Brooke agrees to wait.
While Marmee is in Washington, Beth contracts scarlet fever after spending time with a poor family where three children die. As a precaution, Amy is sent to live with Aunt March and replaces Jo as her companion and helper. Jo, who already had scarlet fever, tends to Beth. After many days of illness, the family doctor advises that Marmee be sent for immediately. Beth recovers, but never fully regains her health and energy.
While Brooke waits for Meg to come of age to marry, he joins the military and serves in the war. After he is wounded, he returns to find work so he can buy a house and be ready when he marries Meg. Laurie goes off to college. On Christmas Day, a year after the book's opening, the girls' father returns home.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1868Author
Louisa May Alcott
United States
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist. In 1860, Alcott began writing for the Atlantic Monthly. When the American Civil War broke out, she served as a nurse in the Union Hospital in Georgetown, DC,...
More on Louisa May AlcottDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
Tom Swift and His War Tank by Victor Appleton
Tom Swift and His War Tank, Or, Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam, is Volume 21 in the original Tom Swift novel series published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Rilla of Ingleside (1921) is the eighth of nine books in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but was the sixth "Anne" novel in pu...
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
The book tells the story of a talented artist born in a small town in Colorado who discovers and develops her singing voice. Her story is told against...
The Rover Boys at School by Edward Stratemeyer
The Rover Boys, or The Rover Boys Series for Young Americans, was a popular juvenile series written by Arthur M. Winfield, a pseudonym for Edward Stra...
American Indian Fairy Tales by Henry Schoolcraft
With no written language, Native Americans living in the Lake Superior region passed their cultural identity down through the generations by way of st...
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Regarded as the pride and joy of American literature, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a picturesque novel depicting Huck’s epic journey from boy...
The Farmer's Boy by Clifton Johnson
A year in the life of a New England farm boy at the end of the 19th century (Introduction by LC).
The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
The Princess and Curdie is a children's classic fantasy novel by George MacDonald from late 1883. The book is the sequel to The Princess and the Gobl...
Legend Land Volume 1 by Lyonesse (George Barham)
Legend Land is a collection of some of the OLD TALES told in those Western Parts of Britain served by the GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY, now retold by LYONESS...
The Garden Behind the Moon: A Real Story of the Moon Angel by Howard Pyle
David goes on a journey to the moon-garden where everything is beautiful and where he also meets Phyllis who is not like the other children in the gar...
Reviews for Little Women
No reviews posted or approved, yet...